Re: [tlug] $HOME/.config Directory

[Scott Robbins <scottro@example.com>]

On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 07:36:17AM +0900, Curt Sampson wrote:
> On 2008-08-25 06:07 -0400 (Mon), Scott Robbins wrote:
> 
> > Actually, I solved the mystery of the missing config file.  Somehow, I'd
> > gotten a .config file in my $HOME directory that was owned by root.
> > 
> > On Fedora, it did put in a default a .config/sakura/sakura.conf file....
> 
> Hm. Where did this idea and implementation of a ".config" dir in one's
> home dir come from? I've not seen it before, even on Fedora systems
> (where admittedly I don't use X11).
> 
Ahhh--I realize where mine came from.  Openbox put it in a share
directory, and I copied it over, never changing permissions.   (In the
CentOS installation.)

Then, I never got around to playing with it on that installation, so
never noticed that I couldn't write to it.  This is what I *think*
happened. 



> I ask because I have for years had my own .config directory, kept under
> revision control, that contains all of my standard configuration files,
> and I have a setup script that links the standard locations of things
> into it. For example, .profile is linked to .config/dot/profile, and
> bin/vfind (find ignoring .svn directories and their contents) is linked
> to .config/bin/vfind.
> 
> Am I about to get my stuff stomped on in some modern Linux systems?

That's a good question.   At the time I was playing with openbox, I
didn't pay much attention to it. However, as a rule, I think these
programs will put their config files UNDER ~/.config, rather than
overwriting the file.  On the other hand, that's not tested, and as I
mention above, I am not positive that my memory of the file being in my
$HOME directory is correct. 

So... my guess, but a rather uneducated one from a non-programmer is
that these programs will probably look for a ~/.config, and put their
files in it if it already exists. 

-- 
Scott Robbins
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